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Press articles
Airport article - Brighton Argus (4/6/05)
Rare Birds in Shoreham
'Rough Music' - April 2005 SHOREHAM AIR-CON Shady dealings surround plans to expand Shoreham Airport - now rebranded as Brighton Shitty, sorry City.
Waste company Penfolds owns part of the land earmarked for runway expansion. Since Shoreham isn't an official landfill site Penfolds don't have to pay landfill tax and so are coining it. And this is a company facing prosecution for sifting and sorting rubbish on site, a job for which they don't have a licence. For the expansion to go ahead the land at Shoreham has to be raised by two metres, which is where Penfolds come in with their not-so-expert muck-raking. But that's not the half of it. Old Marsh Farm which sits on the flight path would make an ideal nature reserve. However that's owned by the Monks Farm Corporation based in Hove which is no doubt seeking a fat payment from the airport for the land. Funny that Brighton councillors held a recent committee meeting seeking planning permission for building expansion on the site and it was already a done deal thanks to permission given two weeks earlier from Adur councillors. (Brighton, Worthing Councils jointy own the airport) And signs are going up steadily saying that land has been sold - Old Salts Farm Road another area - greedy companies hoping to make a killing from the planned expansion Rough Music took a visit out to Old Marsh Farm and found the site is ideal for freshwater brooks and reed beds. And don't take our word for it. Sussex Wildlife Trust's Mark Elliott said: "Reed beds would be fine as they don't attract bigger birds which are a danger to planes. And a freshwater brooks would act as a natural defence from the salt marshlands." Some conservationists are even calling for the airport to close altogether, if the only way it can survive is by expanding. The reason being that to avoid 'bird strike' (no, nothing to do with your girlfriend giving you the cold shoulder) an airport has to have a 10km sterile radius, which would mean killing birds within that area - nice. Already a growing heron population has been dispersed thanks to 200 tonnes of concrete being dropped in a pond at the end of the current runway to act a buffer. Another thing to bear in mind as well as wildlife of the threatened ancient marshlands areas of Lancing Brooks, and the Widewater Lagoon Nature Reserve is the archaeological importance of the site. There are the medieval saltworks, and an 18th century toll bridge among other things. All of this f**ked up, just so as Brighton yuppies don't have to travel the extra half hour to Gatwick! And at a time when air pollution is the fastest growing contributor to climate change And don't forget it's the richest 10% of the population who travel most by air either on luxury business trips or weekend getaways to second homes. The poorest 10% hardly use aircraft at all. Communities Against Runway Expansion (CARE) is holding a public meeting on April 9 between 2-5pm at Lancing Parish Halls, South Street, Lancing.
'Rough Music' - January 2005 COMMUNITIES AGAINST RUNWAY EXPANSION (CARE) A 60-strong meeting came together to decide what's the next stage in stopping the expansion of Shoreham Airport. Two main courses of action were called for: the group will begin it's own air monitoring scheme using an independent company, now that more commercial flights are already in the air; a documentary film on the campaign's aims will be made to go out to schools and general public viewings. The meeting noted that of all the councillors invited to the meeting - including Keith Taylor from Brighton - not one turned up. The next meeting is to be held in March. Shoreham aerodrome has changed its name to Brighton City. From a small scale aerodrome, it now runs regular scheduled services to the Channel Isles and France. Plans for an extended or new runway at Shoreham are currently at the consultation stage. Shoreham, Lancing and Adur residents face having a once tranquil area turned into an over-developed, noisy, hell-hole. Already, 2.5m tons of gravel has been dumped in a pond at the end of the runway to act as a safety buffer. Nearby residents are concerned that their homes face flooding as a result. And that's to say nothing about the population of herons and other birdlife which has been unceremoniously given the order of the boot. Jean Kitchener helps run Communities Against Runway Expansion (CARE). "Why have the wishes of 79% of the population of Adur been ignored and the proposals to market the airport for commercial flights gone ahead?" In the meantime the Dept of Transport says that we have to keep pace with demand with air travel - that argument is the same that's used with roads and we've seen how that ends in tears. A recent DfT report shows that the proposed runway at Stansted Airport would have a net economic loss of £400m. It is a fact that investment in other industries contributes more to regeneration. The European Environment Agency puts the damaging costs of UK aviation at £6bn a year. 5,000 people a year will be breathing in dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide above EU levels if national airport expansion, including Shoreham, goes ahead. The aviation industry doesn't pay fuel tax. If it did £9bn a year would be raised and the 500m passengers predicted by 2030 would fade away as the price of air tickets went up. As it is the UK is expected to see an explosion in air passengers from 180m now to that unsustainable 500m figure. Air pollution will count for 15% of global warming by 2050 if nothing is done. Rough Music can be contacted at roughmusic@hotmail.co.uk Rough Music, c/o PO Box 74, Brighton, BN1 4XQ A press article from March 2004 (the month C.A.R.E was formed) can be seen here |
